World News - Art teacher in hot water over topless photos School where teacher worked was attended by Bush daughters

Until they found the topless photos, Austin High School officials considered Tamara Hoover an excellent art teacher with a knack for helping students find their creativity.Now, she's fighting for her job.The photos, which were posted on Flickr.com by her partner, depict Hoover in the shower, lifting weights, getting dressed, in bed and doing other routine activities.Hoover said Friday the photos are art and makes no apologies."I'm an artist and I'm going to participate in the arts," Hoover said. "If that's not something they want me to do then I want to be told that. I don't feel as if I was doing anything that was beyond expectations."The school district said the photos were inappropriate and violate the "higher moral standard" expected of public school teachers. As she was escorted out of class last month she was told that she's become an ineffective teacher.... http://www.cnn.com

A suspected shoe bomber targeting a Shiite imam who criticized Abu Musab al-Zarqawi blew himself up inside one of Baghdad's most prominent mosques during Friday prayers, killing 13 people and shattering a fragile calm imposed by a security crackdown in the capital.Elsewhere, a soldier in the U.S.-led coalition was killed and two others were missing after an attack on a checkpoint, the U.S. military said. The incident took place about 8 p.m. Friday near the town of Yusufiyah, some 12 miles southwest of Baghdad.The bombing of the Buratha mosque, one of several attacks nationwide, was carried out despite a four-hour driving ban intended to prevent suicide car bombs during Friday prayers, the main religious service of the week.Buratha's imam, a leading Shiite politician, blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for the attack. He said the terror group was trying to reassert itself after the death of its leader in a U.S. airstrike last week....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-06-16-iraq-violence_x.htm?csp=34

Two U.S. soldiers were missing and one was killed after their team was attacked at a traffic-control point southwest of Baghdad, the Pentagon said on Friday.After hearing small arms fire and explosions in the vicinity of the checkpoint southwest of Yusufiya, a quick reaction force responded to the scene, a Pentagon statement said out of Baghdad. "Coalition forces have initiated a search operation to locate and determine the status of the soldiers," the statement added, saying the incident occurred about 7:55 p.m. local time. The attack came on the same day a suicide bomber killed 10 people in a Shi'ite mosque, a day after Iraq's national security adviser said al Qaeda's days in the country were numbered. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2087344

President Bush has refused to meet with border law enforcement officials from Texas for a second time. His response to their request came in the form of a letter Monday, angering both lawmakers and sheriffs. In fact, some Republican members of Congress, upset by what they call the administration's seeming lack of concern for border security, are preparing to hold investigative hearings in San Diego and Laredo, Texas, early next month. Members of the House subcommittee on international terrorism and nonproliferation hope to expose serious security flaws that could potentially lead to terrorist attacks in the country, said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who is a member of the panel and has pushed for the hearings. "The next terrorist is not going to come in through (Transportation Security Administration) screening at Kennedy airport," Poe said. ...http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3943005

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili rules his country with a heavy hand. Long the darling of the West, concerns are growing about human rights violations and threats of war against his country's breakaway regions. Georgia's leader is a big man bursting with energy. He takes of big steps and shows broad smiles. Mikhail Saakashvili enthusiastically greets foreign guests in his government conference room with open arms, as if he were about to embrace everyone in the room at once....http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,421518,00.html

A bird flu virus found in poultry in Hungary last week was the highly infectious H5N1 strain which is also dangerous for humans, chief veterinarian Miklos Suth said on Friday."This afternoon we received confirmation from the British laboratory that it was the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza which had infected poultry in Hungary," he told Reuters. It was the first time that H5N1 had been found in poultry in Hungary. Suth said the test result was not a surprise and the government had taken measures to protect health. "By the time the confirmation arrived, all poultry within the one-kilometer protective zone in Bacs-Kiskun county had been culled," Suth said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2085162